It’s no secret that business owners wear a lot of hats. Some of the hats we wear are our favorite hats to put on. We love everything about it: the way it feels. the way it looks, we sometimes can’t get enough of it and it may even be hard to take off at times.
Then there are those other hats we can’t seem to keep on our heads. It’s like we have to force it to stay on our heads because we are not too happy about wearing it (sort of like that ugly Christmas sweater our mom made us wear as a kid).
One of those hats – the marketing hat – is actually a hat that most business owners can relate to as a more unfavorable hat they have to wear – well, unless you are in a marketing-related business!
If you are the type of business owner who dislikes marketing and finds it hard to keep your marketing hat on, today is your lucky day because you know me – someone who absolutely LOVES marketing and loves helping entrepreneurs and business owners become better marketers by showing them an easy way to do it! So let’s get started…
Marketing: why you need it
Did you know that marketing is often overlooked? When it shouldn’t be?! Marketing is the backbone of your business.
According to the American Marketing Association’s Board of Directors, “[m]arketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.”
The easy version: Telling people who you are and what you do and communicating it with confidence and intention.
Two things you should know about marketing:
There is no way you can have a successful company if you do not implement a Marketing Strategy in your business, because if you don’t tell people who you are and what you do, you won’t make money. It’s that clear.
Next, most business owners think they do not have the money to spend on marketing. BUT, marketing is an investment and you should treat it as such.
I am sure you are familiar with the term: “you need to spend money to make money”? This is especially true with marketing. BUT you can’t just spend the money and expect it to do the work for you. Let me repeat that, don’t just spend money on marketing (or anything for the matter) and expect it to do the work for you.
You also need to look at your situation, create a strategy, do the work and track your results.
One more important note:
You want to be intentional with your marketing. You don’t want to just throw something together real quick and expect that to work. Here are three ways you can start being intentional with your marketing:
- Know who your target audience is. Create a customer avatar so you know exactly who you are talking to. Be specific in who this person is, dig deep into who they are and what their biggest fears, hopes, dreams and desires are.
- Know the message you will use to get your customer avatar aware of your products and services.
- Know how you are going to get your message to your audience. You could go to a networking event, you could hold your own event, you could exhibit at a trade show, you could do an online campaign…there are many different options as to how you can get your message to your audience. You just need to know who your audience is and what your message is to them.
Finally…
What this marketing game all boils down to is that when you pair it with a strategic plan, you can most definitely get results.
And who knows? Maybe once you start doing marketing the right way, your “marketing hat” will be added to your “favorite” collection and you will want to wear it all the time!
Creating Memorable Impressions For Your Brand 